AN EFFECT FROM BAD TEETH

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 282, 25 May 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

AN EFFECT FROM BAD TEETH

Dr. Ralph Williams, medical officer to the Shellield schools, declares that 80 per cent, of the scholars in the public schools of England are suffering from decayed 'teeth. Parents did not like being 'told that their children squinted. They became quite indignant, and thought .thay were being insulted. It was difficult for them to realise that the curing of squinting was an urgent matter, and was practicaly impossible after the child reached the age of seven years. Besides that, squinting was a defect of growing importance in view of the Workmen's Compensation Act and similar measures, because it meant that only those who were physicaly sound would get the best situations. Unquestionably, cases of squinting would be best dealt with by the municipality, as they did not at present occupy the attention pi resident physicians at the public hospitals. The'poorer classes had only the family doctor, the parish doctor, the dispensaries and public hospitals to look to, and that was not at all a satisfactory overlook so far as eye treatment, at least, was concerned. School clinics would do- away with existiing evils.